. . . is that out of nowhere, no less a personage than George R. R. Martin, author of the best-selling fantasy series since sliced bread (since spun off into the TV series 'Game Of Thrones'), has denounced the boycott and publicly begged his readers to buy Tor books. He's done so while being less than fully forthcoming about the reason for the boycott, those behind it, and the faux apology offered by the prime offender.
One would like to assume that Mr. Martin made his call entirely of his own volition, without any request for intervention from individuals and/or publishers affected by the boycott. For those who do make that assumption, I have a special offer - a bridge in Brooklyn, NYC that I happen to have for sale at a very attractive price. Cash only, please, and in small bills.
Thank you to all who've joined the boycott. As yet I've seen no reason to discontinue it, although Vox Day suspects there may be in due course.
Corporate actions tend to move along very slowly and then happen all at once. Macmillan's CEO just returned from his sabbatical this week and I have been directly informed by a Macmillan executive that no decision on how to address the situation has yet been made. And while I suppose it is possible that Mr. Sargent could simply throw out the company Code of Conduct in order to retain the services of an arrogant, entitled employee who believes she can treat his company's customers and authors with total contempt and still retain her job, I tend to doubt it.
I will not be even remotely surprised if both Ms Gallo and Mr. Nielsen Hayden leave Tor Books in the near future. Macmillan quite clearly had no idea what sort of inmate-run asylum it has on its hands, and it's not surprising that it would take a little time for them to figure out what needs to be done in order to set it straight.
We shall see. I haven't called for anyone to be fired or forced to resign, but others have. Whether or not that happens, something needs to be done to ensure that the institutional bias that apparently rules the roost in at least certain parts of Tor is uprooted. One hopes that Macmillan (Tor's US oversight company) is up to that job. I'd much rather see Tor reform those parts of itself and its staff that need it, apologize for their past errors, and once again cater to the desires and aspirations of all its potential customers.
Peter
EDITED TO ADD: I note that Mr. Martin has mentioned Tor and/or the boycott in no less than three separate posts on his LiveJournal today. To misquote Shakespeare, "Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much." As I said above, if you think he's doing this entirely of his own volition, there's that bridge I mentioned . . .
Martin's "There, there, little children, let me guide you..." was trite and insincere. Talk about your 'privilege' Sitting on his 'throne', (no pun actually intended) pontificating on things he has no notion of sickened me.
ReplyDeleteOh well. Too bad we can't just 'ignore them'. But 'they' are aggressive, and it is THEY who are rabid and vicious. They run in packs, assured of their governmental support of their monstrous group think.
So very sad. I will look carefully at the publisher of any SF book that I buy in future. No matter the outcome of this I will never again buy a book published by Tor. I will not cry over that 'loss', there are a lot of books out there that I haven't read yet, most of them not published by that house of ill repute.
I'm terrified of those people. I have seen what they have done. They could, just from the contents of this message, get me fired so you will understand that I cannot give my name. I am a coward, but must protect my family.
Sigh. GRRM just *has* to make it personal.
ReplyDeleteHad a great chat with Eric Flint at Libertycon (Sorry I missed meeting you Peter, it was my loss). For a guy who pretty much thinks the Sad Puppies thing is misguided, at least he tries to understand his opponents and does not think them any less human. I guess that's what I'm tired of.
On a side note Peter, I just finished your Maxwell series. Great stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the enlisted => officer path you have for the Lancastrian Commonwealth, is that modeled after what the Israeli Defense Forces do?
@Jon: The IDF does that in a lot of cases. So did the South African Defence Force. It's fairly common in many armies, but more prevalent in time of war when they need to find a lot of junior officers in a hurry. They use OCS as a conduit to teach promising recruits the basics of leadership, then turn them loose. As I pointed out in 'Ride The Rising Tide', that meant a lot of junior officers were killed very quickly - and got a lot of their men killed too - through inexperience and lack of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteIt was my experience that a 'mustang' - one who had enlisted service before being commissioned - made a much better tactical leader and all-round officer than someone commissioned through a service academy. I applied that to my civilian career as well, where I'd gladly take a junior member of staff who was studying part-time towards a degree while working, in preference to a new university graduate with no experience. I invariably found the former worked harder, performed better and was an all-round more competent person than the latter.
If the call for resignations was not made, nothing would have happened.
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